A variety of disorders and injuries can require soft tissue repair and suture anchor placement. These procedures often require drilling a hole in bone.
For repair procedures that involve drilling a hole in bone, traditional devices and surgical methods suffer from several drawbacks. For example, variations in anatomy and arthroscopic portal placement can result in undesirable approaches for bone tunneling or anchor placement. Clear access to the optimal bone site can be difficult for certain procedures such as shoulder and hip surgeries. For another example, high stress conditions can result when drilling around a curve. When using a cannulated drill guide, stresses such as compressive forces are applied to a drill, and buckling or lock-up may occur. Also, large offset angles and small bend radii may induce high cyclic bending stresses.
Accordingly, there remains a need for improved devices and methods for drilling into bone.